Give Lives Back to Abused Birds

Thank you so much for your continued support! Thanks to your donations we are able to make their living areas so much more comfortable for the birds. With summer coming we are expecting very high temperatures and that is not easy for the birds to deal with so we have added some extra pools to our free range area and have added misters for everyone. We are also in the procccess of planting many more plants. This will help with shade and cooling for the summer and can also be beneficial to their longterm health. Having mostly rocks to walk on is hard on their little bird feet so soft groundcover is a must. We are also adding many herbs that they can eat such as mint and oregano as well as many other plants that will help make thier living environment as comfortable as possible such a bamboo to hide behind and more trees and bushes.

you so much for your support. Thanks to donors like you we have been able to make several improvements to Little Red Bird Animal Sanctuary that allows the birds to live happily and healthily.

We have recently added a large pond and several pools to the free ranging area so that the ducks can have regular access to water for swiming and other natural behaviors. Also in our free ranging area we have added new sand to all the pens the brids sleep in at night. This makes the area nicer for the birds as it makes it easier for volunteers to keep their areas clean for them.

The majority of the donations we recieve go to toward veterinarian care for the birds. Pictured below is Bill Nye. He is a rooster who recently had his leg amputated. He had an infection in his foot that would have spread to the bone and killed him had he not gotten surgery. Thanks to your help he is doing well now. He is recovering and gaining extra strength in his remaining leg so that he can still get around.

One comon problem we see in our hens are reproductive issues. Often times their bodies can not keep up with the insane amount of eggs they have been bred to produce and eggs end up stuck inside of their abdomens. This also takes surgery to correct. Pictured below is quinn, an amazing survivor who had pounds of broken egg taken out. She has made an incredible recovery.

Aside from veterinarian care we also have every day operating costs such as providing food. We have recently been able to switch to a much better food and can also add flaxseeds to their food which helps prevent some of the medical problems that can develop.

We were recently graced with a letter from a little girl named Maddie from Rhode Island. She lost her beloved hen, Sally, whom she loved as a family member. She, and her mom had been following our work all the way on the other side of the U.S. Coast (California), and in honor of her beloved Sally, Maddie took upon a collection jar around her neighborhood to donate to the birds at Little Red Bird Sanctuary.

Maddie’s story means so much to us. Not only does this show that outreach has connected with folks all the way across the other side of the U.S., it also instills hope that the future generation will see chickens with a different eye: sentient beings with the right to live life freely without expectation to produce or be valued based on their ability to produce economically.

A legacy and voice to her sisters.. ambassador and Internet star

Topaz is one of our more famous ambassadors who discovered fame through social media earlier this year. Her story had been circulated nearly 100,000 times (check it out here: ttps://www.facebook.com/FreeFromHarm/videos/1663577270321940/). Folks have repeated expressed shock at the level of impact her genetics have had on her body - programmed to lay eggs until her body self-destructs - but the reality is that her story is commonplace, and no different than any of the 300,000,000 hens in the U.S. egg industry.

After spending her first 18 months of life pumping out eggs for human consumption, she was resold to a second egg farm where her miserable existence crammed in a wire cage was extended by another 18 months in an effort to drain the last bit of productivity from her fragile, 3-lb. frame.

While hundreds of millions of her sisters’ stories end there––executed and disposed of once their worth to society wears out––she defied the odds and made it to rescue; however, her body had been so exhausted by genetic manipulation, forced to pump out such an extreme and unnaturally high number of eggs, that, like an overused, aging machine, it was destined to break down. Upon rescue, her abdomen was so full of liquid egg that she struggled to stand upright or even breathe, and she was rushed to the vet that day. In surgery, nearly 2 pounds of egg poured out of her. She is now outside living the life that had been repeatedly stolen from her, where she is free to breathe fresh air, run around with her friends, bathe in the dirt, soak in the sun, and, if all goes well, live out the true duration of her life without having to suffer from her body going haywire again.

Topaz’s story is no different than pretty much any other egg-production hen’s: trapped in a body genetically programmed to self-destruct. We see this every single day. We look into their eyes, see their pain, know their value as sentient lives, not egg machines. Battery caged, cage-free, or free-range––the hens all suffer the same fates, as the conditions in which they are kept are merely different means to the same end, to the same production of the same product that yields the same physiological destruction.

Today, Topaz has joined the ranks of our other ambassadors, sharing her story in hopes that it will give a voice to the millions of her sisters who will never have one, and help shine a light on the cruelty built into every egg. The left picture below is Topaz upon arrival to our sanctuary, and the right is her after her life-saving surgery.

For this initial GlobalGiving report, my original plan was to recite staggering statistics of the numerous animals we have helped, surgeries performed, bodies mended, percentage of time each day dedicated to the care and advocacy of animals we fight so hard for.

Upon reflection, however, I believe what makes Little Red Bird Sanctuary an amazing organization, above all other attributes, is our determination to treat every animal as an individual. What does that really mean, you might ask? For us, it means that a pigeon’s life is no less important than a cow’s life and a ‘less desirable animal’ is no less important in contrast to popular, friendly, handsome and otherwise ‘desirable’ animals. Every day, we put this principle into practice.

Since the inception of our rescue program, we have helped over 1,800 animals, provided 400+ surgeries, hundreds of vet visits and thousands of in-home medicating and handfeedings. The majority of those who came into our care are the most maligned members of society: ex-battery hens and roosters. Roughly 30% of animals who come into our care have pre-existing special needs or are in immediate need of vet/medical life-saving intervention.

Survive against the odds.. and become famous while she’s at it!

Topaz is the epitome of the tragic reality that, in our society, living beings are treated, and their bodies manipulated to be, no different than machines. After spending her first 18 months of life pumping out eggs for human consumption, she was re-sold to a second egg farm where her miserable existence crammed in a wire cage was extended by another 18 months in an effort to drain the last bit of productivity from her fragile, 3-lb. frame.

While hundreds of millions of her sisters’ stories end there––executed and disposed of once their worth to society wears out––she defied the odds and made it to rescue; however, her body had been so exhausted by genetic manipulation, forced to pump out such an extreme and unnaturally high number of eggs, that, like an overused, aging machine, it was destined to break down. Upon rescue, her abdomen was so full of liquid egg that she struggled to stand upright or even breathe, and she was rushed to the vet that day. In surgery, nearly 2 pounds of egg poured out of her. She is now outside living the life that had been repeatedly stolen from her, where she is free to breathe fresh air, run around with her friends, bathe in the dirt, soak in the sun, and, if all goes well, live out the true duration of her life without having to suffer from her body going haywire again.

While Topaz' surgical photos and video have attracted a bit attention - viewed 90,000+ times and shared 1,700+ times (check it out here: https://www.facebook.com/FreeFromHarm/videos/1663577270321940/), her story is no different than pretty much any other egg-production hen’s: trapped in a body genetically programmed to self-destruct. We see this every single day. We look into their eyes, see their pain, know their value as sentient lives, not egg machines. Battery caged, cage-free, or free-range––the hens all suffer the same fates, as the conditions in which they are kept are merely different means to the same end, to the same production of the same product that yields the same physiological destruction.

Today, Topaz has joined the ranks of our other ambassadors, sharing her story in hopes that it will give a voice to the millions of her sisters who will never have one, and help shine a light on the cruelty built into every egg.

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